A zebra-tailed lizard stands on a bed of tiny glass beads and shifts its weight. The beads slip underfoot, and the mottled beige creature stretches its spindly toes to get a better purchase. Suddenly it breaks into a run, blazing across the granular surface with stupendous agility, its toes stretching out flat as they hit the beads, its feet whipping back and forth in a blur. Each side of the lizard’s body stretches and then coils in turn as the reptile darts ahead at several meters per second.

Scooped up a year ago in California’s Mojave Desert and transplanted to a lab at Georgia Tech, the lizard holds our interest because of its truly peculiar feet. Those long, bony toes allow the reptile to navigate over sand, rocks, and the many other types of terrain it may face in the desert. In the lab, the bed of glass beads stands in for desert sand, and by blowing air through it or packing it down, we can make the ground looser or more solid. We then study how the lizard copes with the changes.

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